Sacred and Secular Partnerships

I am curious about the potential for partnerships between secular and sacred organizations in the emerging culture. In such partnerships, I think that the mission of each organization could be advanced and also something new created that was not there before. I recently listened to The Secret Message of Jesus as a book on CD and I recall phrase from Brian McLaren that I will do my best to paraphrase – “We should not be concerned as much about the contamination that we might pick up, but instead focused on the good that might influence others.” The reference was to individual actions, but I think that it could apply to organizations as well – churches, denominations, etc.

The case study that brought this to my mind came a few weeks ago, I read about Nothing But Nets in a United Methodist publication. From their website:

Nothing But Nets is a grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. While the UN Foundation has been working with the UN to fight malaria for years, it was a column that Rick Reilly wrote about malaria in Sports Illustrated, challenging each of his readers to donate at least $10 for the purchase of an anti-malaria bed nets — and the incredible response from thousands of Americans across the country — that led to the creation the Nothing But Nets campaign.

What do you think? Are such partnerships helpful? Do they fit within the mission of the church?